“The Tribes of Tatooine” takes the audience on another incredible journey through the evolution of Boba Fett. In the second episode of this new series, Fett finally has an audience with the Mayor of Mos Espa regarding who sent the assassins after him. Fett is disturbed to learn the killer was not sent by the Mayor but by a completely separate party.
It was nice to see Boba Fett’s leadership challenged by the cousins of Jabba The Hut. The tense exchange between them will clearly lead to more confrontations down the line. After this exchange, Boba Fett has another dream recalling his time with the Tusken Raiders. We see him learn how to fight like the raiders and value their culture and traditions. Fett, in return, teaches the Tuskens new skills like how to ride a speeder bike. He comes to see the Tuskens as family and supports them during a major train takedown. That’s easily a highlight of the series so far.
Tameura Morrison gives another standout performance this week, and this episode is incredibly well layered. Once again, I’m seeing clear evidence that this will probably be the best live-action Star Wars show based solely upon the stories the writers choose to tell. The fact that this episode provides another great journey inward for the semi-retired bounty hunter and shows insight into his motivations as a person contrasted with what he previously did for a living is fascinating.
I don’t know if it’s fair to say that his time with the Tuskens softened him or whether he just found another way of life after spending time with that culture. Both possibilities can be argued from the way I look at things. The most surprising element of the entire episode was that Fett chose to teach the Tuskens new skills demonstrating the selfish bounty hunter that we previously knew is evolving into a different person. There is either a great allegory or metaphor involving these indigenous beings. To me, it seems like that particular race of aliens is meant to be a substitution or a deeper explanation of either Middle Eastern or Native American culture. Either way, both cultures are presumed to exhibit certain behaviors and abide by specific laws and traditions within their culture.
The Tuskens, much like those two diverse cultures, seemed to have been forgotten by society despite their value to modern society as a world community. Boba Fett essentially taught the Tusken self-empowerment. I think that is such a beautiful foundational concept to put within the world of Star Wars. A story like this shows audiences there’s always more to learn from what you don’t understand. This episode also looks at the idea that even if you can’t understand something, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible to learn from that group of people or civilization.
This show is breaking new ground because it’s actively trying to have deep, meaningful conversations about what it means to go on a journey in life. If you aren’t a warrior or a hunter, what else can you become in a place littered with scavengers and opportunists? I feel like that’s the central question of this Disney+ series. Who do you become after you disavow who you were? This is the kind of science fiction we can all use to relate to our own lives. I’m very aware that this series has a long way to go before fully answering those questions, and I will take a deep dive into those ideas anytime the show wants to present them.
Still, in regards to this episode, nothing about the 53 minutes that I watched was boring. This was a slow lesson in humility for Star Wars’ favorite bounty hunter. I hope this series continues its upward trajectory toward this man finding his true purpose. I will definitely be tuning in for the foreseeable future, and I hope audiences do too.
